CinemaSerf

0/10

Peter Finch seems very much at home with this role. He is "Johnnie Byrne", the successfully returned Labour MP for the working class constituency of "Urnley". Overlooked for a government position, he lives a pretty rakish existence regularly cheating on his wife with younger women. It all comes to a bit of an head when he comes into information that he could use to damage his own government; intent on using it he instead gets caught up with a lady friend "Pauline" (Mary Peach) and misses the opportunity to ask the question. One of his cohorts is less than impressed, so leaks this to his local party who force a vote of no confidence in him. He has to take stock now - else he could and up with nothing at all. Despite the decent cast - Stanley Holloway, Donald Pleasance and Billie Whiteaw appear now and again - it really is a bit of a single-hander from Finch. He does a decent enough job, but I found that the film slides into mediocrity after a promising start. The quality of the dialogue slips markedly as the story progresses and somehow, there is a convenience to the ending that rendered it just a bit hollow. I suppose for 1961 it might be considered a bit racy, but that has lost what potency it had now, too. Worth it for Finch, but I don't know that I would bother watching it again.